“LA/LA: Place and Practice” is a two-day symposium organized by Scripps College, the Getty Foundation, the Getty Research Institute, and The San Diego Museum of Art in conjunction with the Pacific Standard Time: LA/LA. Supported by a grant from the Getty Foundation, this two-day event will be held at The San Diego Museum of Art on Saturday, May 2, and at the Getty Center on Monday, May 4.

Dedicated to expanding conversation and encouraging dialogue around Pacific Standard Time: LA/LA, “LA/LA: Place and Practice” will inquire into the local side of the LA/LA equation—Los Angeles and the Southern California region extending into Tijuana—considering the direct relationships between local Latino arts communities, migratory experiences and practices that cross the US/Mexico border, and increased exposure to the variety of cultural practices at work in the region.

Organized as a series of public conversations, “LA/LA: Place and Practice” examines the difficult topics that arise when considering the complex terrain of the Los Angeles-Latin American relationship. These conversations will shed light on the heterogeneous nature of art making by both Latino and Latin American artists in the region by exploring the varied research practices and programming platforms that artists and other cultural producers have adopted.

Structured as two panel discussions, two roundtables, and four sessions with fast-paced presentations over the two days, speakers include a range of artists, writers, curators, and urban researchers. They will address four topics dedicated to critical writing and media, community organizing, histories and migrations, and pedagogy and archives. Additionally, presenters will give an overview of their own practices as they relate to Los Angeles, Southern California, and the US/Mexico border.

“LA/LA: Place and Practice” is the result of a series of meetings that were held in the summer and fall of 2013 by a group of artists, arts activists, curators, educators, and scholars who have an ongoing interest in the Latino arts community in Los Angeles, as well as those working across Southern California and into Tijuana, Mexico. One of the primary goals was to enrich the dialogue about the Latino arts community in Los Angeles, Southern California, and the Tijuana border region leading up to Pacific Standard Time: LA/LA in 2017.

“LA/LA: Place and Practice” is organized by Ken Gonzales-Day, Bill Kelley Jr., and Pilar Tompkins Rivas.

Pacific Standard Time: LA/LA is a far-reaching and ambitious exploration of Latin American and Latino art in dialogue with Los Angeles taking place across Southern California from September 2017 through January 2018.

Pacific Standard Time is an initiative of the Getty with arts institutions across Southern California.